Reina Valdez

Last updated
Reina Valdez
BornDecember 1890
Springfield, Massachusetts, US
OccupationActress

Reina Valdez (sometimes credited as Rena Valdez; born December 1890) was a silent film actress active in Hollywood in the 1910s. [1]

Although some publicity reports claimed she was born in and raised in Mexico, she was a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, where she grew up before she moved to New York City to pursue an interest in acting. [2] [3] [4] After a few appearances on Broadway, eventually she found herself in Los Angeles, where she worked for a number of film companies over the course of her short career, including the Santa Barbara Motion Picture Company, the New York Motion Picture Company, and Essanay. [5] [6] [7] Little is known about her life before or after her film career. It is likely that "Reina Valdez" was her stage name.

Selected filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence La Badie</span> American actress

Florence La Badie was an American-Canadian actress in the early days of the silent film era. She was a major star between 1911 and 1917. Her career was at its height when she died at age 29 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Gish</span> American actress (1898–1968)

Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress of the screen and stage, as well as a director and writer. Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal City, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Universal City or Universal Studios Complex is an unincorporated area within the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Approximately 415 acres (1.7 km2) within and around the surrounding area is the property of Universal Pictures, one of the five major film studios in the United States: about 70 percent of the studio's property is inside this unincorporated area, while the remaining 30 percent is within the Los Angeles city limits. Universal City is primarily surrounded by Los Angeles with its northeastern corner touching the city of Burbank, making the unincorporated area a county island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viola Dana</span> American actress (1897–1987)

Viola Dana was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Cunard</span> American actress

Grace Cunard was an American actress, screenwriter and film director. During the silent era, she starred in over 100 films, wrote or co-wrote at least 44 of those productions, and directed no fewer than eight of them. In addition, she edited many of her films, including some of the shorts, serials, and features she developed in collaboration with Francis Ford. Her younger sister, Mina Cunard, was also a film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Powell</span> Canadian actor and director

Frank Powell was a Canadian-born stage and silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who worked predominantly in the United States. He is also credited with "discovering" Theda Bara and casting her in a starring role in the 1915 release A Fool There Was. Her performance in that production, under Powell's direction, quickly earned Bara widespread fame as the film industry's most popular evil seductress or on-screen "vamp".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bessie Barriscale</span> American actress (1884–1965)

Bessie Barriscale was an American actress who gained fame on the stage and in silent films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marguerite Snow</span> American actress

Marguerite Snow was an American silent film and stage actress. In her early films she was billed as Margaret Snow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Lester</span> American actress (1867–1952)

Louise Lester was an American silent film actress. She was the first female star of Western films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred Greenwood</span> American actress (1885–1961)

Winifred Louise Greenwood was an American silent film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhea Mitchell</span> American actress and screenwriter (1890–1957)

Rhea Ginger Mitchell was an American film actress and screenwriter who appeared in over 100 films, mainly during the silent era. A native of Portland, Oregon, Mitchell began her acting career in local theater, and joined the Baker Stock Company after completing high school. She appeared in various regional theater productions on the West Coast between 1911 and 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Bush (actress)</span> American actress (1886–1969)

Pauline Elvira Bush was an American silent film actress. She was nicknamed "The Madonna of the Movies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enid Markey</span> American actress (1894–1981)

Enid Markey was an American theatre, film, radio, and television actress, whose career spanned over 50 years, extending from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. In movies, she was the first performer to portray the fictional character Jane, Tarzan's "jungle" companion and later his wife. Markey performed as Jane twice in 1918, costarring with Elmo Lincoln in the films Tarzan of The Apes and The Romance of Tarzan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Whipple</span> American actress

Clara Whipple(néeClara or Clarissa or Clarise Brimmer Whipple; November 7, 1887 – November 6, 1932) was an American actress who flourished in theatre from 1913 to 1915 and in silent film from 1915 to 1919. She was also a silent film scenario writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Hall</span> American actress

Ella Augusta Hall was an American actress. She appeared in more than 90 films between 1912 and 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes Vernon</span> American silent film actress

Agnes Vernon was an American film actress of the silent era. While still in her teens, she experienced a meteoric ascent from obscurity to box-office sensation. After turning twenty-three and a movie career fading away, she abandoned the silver screen forever. Vernon performed in over 90 films between 1913 and 1922. She completed most of her roles under contract with Universal Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond B. West</span> American film director

Raymond B. West was an American motion picture director. He joined the New York Motion Picture Company in 1910 and directed more than 70 motion pictures between 1910 and 1919 before being involved in an equestrian accident on set that resulted in permanent physical and psychological damage, forcing his retirement. He died in 1923 at age 37 from complications arising from his prior accident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Gates</span>

Eleanor Gates was an American playwright who created seven plays that were staged on Broadway. Her best known work was the play The Poor Little Rich Girl, which was produced by her husband in 1913 and went on to be made as films for Mary Pickford in 1917 and for Shirley Temple in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold M. Shaw</span> American film director (1877–1926)

Harold Marvin Shaw was an American stage performer, film actor, screenwriter, and director during the silent era. A native of Tennessee, he worked in theatrical plays and vaudeville for 16 years before he began acting in motion pictures for Edison Studios in New York City in 1910 and then started regularly directing shorts there two years later. Shaw next served briefly as a director for Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) in New York before moving to England in May 1913 to be "chief producer" for the newly established London Film Company. During World War I, he relocated to South Africa, where in 1916 he directed the film De Voortrekkers in cooperation with African Film Productions, Limited. Shaw also established his own production company while in South Africa, completing there two more releases, The Rose of Rhodesia in 1918 and the comedy Thoroughbreds All in 1919. After directing films once again in England under contract with Stoll Pictures, he finally returned to the United States in 1922 and later directed several screen projects for Metro Pictures in California before his death in Los Angeles in 1926. During his 15-year film career, Shaw worked on more than 125 films either as a director, actor, or screenwriter.

Ruth Ann Baldwin was an American journalist who became a silent film writer and director active during the 1910s, one of the few women to direct in the early era of filmmaking. Despite the fact that she was one of the first female directors in America, not much is known about her, but the work she did in the 1910s was relevant to the society she lived in.

References

  1. "Reina Valdez Attains Ambition". The Moving Picture World. XXIV. April 1915.
  2. Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual, 1919.
  3. "Today's Best Photo Play Stories". Chicago Tribune. 2 Apr 1914. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  4. "New England, the Merry Widow, and a Spanish Beauty". Photoplay. December 1914.
  5. "In Movie Land". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 11 Nov 1914. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  6. "Perils of Photoplaying". The Wilmington Morning Star. 18 Jan 1914. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
  7. "Gossip of the Film World". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 19 Nov 1914. Retrieved 2021-03-27.